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Article: A contingent triumph.(The (Strange, Recent but Understandable) Triumph of Liberalism in Australia)(Book Review)
- Article from:
- Quadrant
- Article date:
- October 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Quadrant Magazine Company, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The (Strange, Recent but Understandable) Triumph of Liberalism in Australia, by Bob Catley; Macleay Press, 2005, $34.95.
THE ROLE OF LIBERALISM in Australian politics has long been a vexed issue and a puzzle to those who study it. It is odd that those politicians who drew up a wonderfully liberal constitution in the 1890s should have turned around and put into practice illiberal legislation such White Australia once that constitution had been implemented.
For much of the twentieth century it was difficult to see much in the way of liberalism in operation in Australia, even by those calling themselves liberals. In the early 1920s Stanley Bruce proclaimed ...